Airport security

Part-timers 'create airport security threat' :

"THE federal Opposition is demanding to know why university students and retirees have been hired to conduct passport checks for international travellers leaving two Australian airports.
The trial program begins at Sydney and Adelaide airports today and involves the part-time workers doing final face-to-face passport checks."

Does seem a bit odd to use uni students and retirees to add to the security procedures. I can understand having "extras" running around at different times just to keep passengers on the ball and allowing the more serious things to be dealt with by the well trained, well qualified people. Tiering secuity makes sense from that point of view. If it's a trial, I accept it as that and that we are part of the trial, so be it. We are not a bad place to have a trial and Sydney is the other most obvious place because it can become very congested there. Extra eyes and ears would help. I would have thought it could be built into the customs structure and their jobs be of differing levels so that people can perform according to their training. It is a tricky job. You are dealing with difficult people at times, you do need a brain to work out the moves, but you also need some low level stuff which does not frighten the living daylights out of people.

Given my last jaunt was a month after the trip to Vanuatu I can say the security was quite different this time. Going over there was the same level of friendly efficiency. You knew people were doing their job and you were aware they were alert without being overbearing or intimidating. They were also able to talk people through the procedures. Coming back there were nothing but back searches in New Caledonia and Sydney and suitcases had been targeted for random extra checks. I managed to get myself picked for the random explosive check. My only danger of exploding was from the magnificent breakfast given to us by Air Câlin. The explosives check was explained to me very politely. The procedure of being "wanded" and having my bag "wanded" wasn't disturbing. I felt reassured to know there were things in place and that people were looking after my safety...and this time not one of my locks went missing. We all had the impression that even though the random stuff was slowing us down, the pace was reasonable and we felt better about some official procedures being in place to look after us. It was quite civilised. So trailling stuff is not a problem as long as it is not undermining the people who are properly trained and paid for the job. I could see it as being a thing people could retrain for or spend some useful time on to earn a bit of extra cash if they were reliable and efficient.